Soda Tables Made from a Single Piece of Hand-Blown Murano Glass by Yiannis Ghikas

FDT Bureau

In 2020, Greek designer Yiannis Ghikas collaborated with Italian furniture brand Miniforms to release a range of coffee tables. Recently, they have added two new colours to the collection, namely, amethyst and blue, which join the already existing amber and petrol-green options. Know more about it on FURNITURE DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY (FDT).

The Soda tables are named after one of the primary ingredients of glass, and they are made entirely from a single piece of hand-blown Murano glass by three skilled artisans. The tables feature a chubby form with a round table top and a stem made up of three petal shapes created by blowing air through the glass. The hammered surface of the tables gives them an organic feel and a prism-like effect. Despite their visual lightness, the tables are substantial and are available in two different shapes.

Throughout the research and design process, the lack of glass-blown products of this size and kind surprised the collaborators. Later they realized that it was because of the technical difficulties involved in handling such an object, and the level of expertise required to do so, which is possessed by a handful of highly skilled artisans on the Italian island of Murano.

The designers wanted to take advantage of the transparency of glass and create an object with a geometry that plays with light and shadow, resulting in different shapes from different perspectives. The table’s tough, hammered surface fragments its transparency, giving it a primitive aesthetic and artistic value, despite being an industrial product.

Image credit: Yiannis Ghikas